Click on the link here for Audio Player: Bob Crane Show – Feb. 24, 1960
In retrospect, it really wasn’t that long ago that radio was a veritable hotbed of Personalities – every station and every format seemed to have those people whom the audience stuck to like glue and who were fixtures in our daily lives and who weren’t particularly interested in making you paranoid, seething or schizophrenic and had little or no political axes to grind. Every city and town that could be reached by the somewhat archaic technology of broadcast radio, boasted their own personalities, and where you lived pretty much dictated who you were a fan of.
The major metropolitan areas like L.A., New York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco had an embarrassment of riches in the Radio Personality department. It was cause for stiff competition. One of the most popular in Los Angeles was Bob Crane.
Probably best known now via the 60’s TV series Hogan’s Heroes, Crane was a radio personality many years before he entered TV. His daily morning show on KNX in Los Angeles was almost required listening if you lived in L.A. at the time. His rapid fire delivery, the staccato sketches and the veritable who’s who of guests made him one of the most listened to Personalities in radio throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Here is a sample by way of an audition for a proposed evening version of his daily morning show from February 24, 1960.
Yes, radio was very different then.
Related articles
- ‘L.A. Radio Sessions’ Spotlight Noted Radio Personalities, Programmers (allaccess.com)
- Personality Radio – KMPC, Los Angeles – 1968 – Past Daily Pop Chronicles (pastdaily.com)
Thank you for a wonderful post! Where did you come upon this recording of Bob’s show? It’s fantastic! I am currently spearheading the efforts for Bob Crane’s induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame and also writing his biography. For more information, visit http://www.vote4bobcrane.org and http://vote4bobcrane.blogspot.com/
Many thanks for your comments. That tape came, I believe, from a producer who was at KNX at the time. He gave me his collection many years ago. Sadly, that was the only Crane recording he had. I have others – airchecks I picked up at a flea market about 25 years ago. Those aren’t complete and the sound quality needs some work. As an archivist, you have to take what you can get and hope a better one comes along 😉
You are so right! Rather have a bad recording than nothing at all. I have a pretty healthy collection of Bob Crane’s KNX airchecks, and people dont realize just how talented he was in radio. Are the airchecks you picked up at the flea market of Crane? If so, I would love to know which ones you have, and if they are different from those I have, would you consider a sell or trade? Feel free to email me at vote4bobcrane at gmail dot com
Thanks again!! 🙂
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